


No time to say goodbye

by sun_and__stars (ChloeNicole1912)



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Sequel Trilogy
Genre: And Ben's death, Angst, HAPPY BEEPS PEOPLE, Hurt/Comfort, Just because I recognise the canon of TROS does not mean I accept it, Mentions of Rey's death, Post TROS, TROS Fix IT, but again, but theres a happy ending i swear, there will be pain
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-06-21
Updated: 2020-06-25
Packaged: 2021-03-03 20:08:41
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Major Character Death, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 6,166
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/24831382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ChloeNicole1912/pseuds/sun_and__stars
Summary: In which Rey is embarking on an epic journey to bring Ben Solo home from the world between worlds because she accepts his ending about as much as the fandom do.She's got the monumental task of finding a way to Ben, bringing him back and also convincing her friends not to kill him on sight if she manages all of that. So, you know, a regular afternoon for our girl.
Relationships: Kylo Ren/Rey, Rey/Ben Solo, Rey/Ben Solo | Kylo Ren
Comments: 12
Kudos: 25





	1. Chapter 1

It should have been easy. The war was won, their enemies defeated, there were no more battles to fight. Many people had given their lives for the cause, and each one weighed heavy in the hearts of those left behind but there was still no denying the feeling that they should be celebrating their victory. Yet when Finn watched their companion he couldn’t help but feel like her war was still raging, harder and more violent than ever.

“Uh Rey, can you remind me why we are here again?” Poe piped up, looking around at the ruined temple, kicking a fallen stone out of the way so BB8 could roll smoothly beside him. 

“There’s something here that Master Luke wanted me to find.” Came her clipped reply from ahead. She stood looking at the dilapidated entrance to a passage that led further into the temple complex. Her face was illuminated in the golden glow of her saber and yet there was no warmth there. Just hard determination. “I’m going further in, stay here and watch out for any unfriendly locals.” 

“Are you sure that’s a good id- oop and she’s gone already.” Poe sighed, rolling his eyes and turning back to Finn. 

Finn simply shrugged, defeated. 

“She’s got to do this. Maybe one day she’ll tell us why but you and I know that there’s no rushing her, or reasoning with her when she’s like this. Just roll with it and hope this planet is as uninhabited as 3PO told us!” 

This was not the first time that Finn and Poe had found themselves in situations like this. It wasn’t always decrepit temples. Sometimes it was strange festivals on far off planets, or great archives in towering cities or even the very edges of deep space, far from any civilization. But the reasons were always the same. Rey was looking for something that Luke Skywalker had asked her to find. 

To be fair, she had tried to start her mission alone, sneaking off base in the dead of night, sometimes for days on end, returning with the same tired, but fiercely determined look on her face. 

It had started after Exegol. That battle had been a turning point for so many people in the Resistance, the fall of the Final order signalling a new age for the galaxy and an end to so much trouble. But Rey had come back with none of that relief that had taken over the ranks of the Resistance, instead withdrawing further into herself, even if she had initially tried to hide it. She had tried to smile with her friends, laugh at Rose’s teasing of Finn and joining in with Poe’s banter, but Finn knew it was superficial. He didn’t need the Force to tell that something was very very wrong, but it helped. The more times Rey would come back from her secret missions empty-handed the more her mask had slipped. She became snappy, often taking out her frustration on whatever poor machine had the audacity to have something wrong with it while in her vicinity. She became almost obsessed with the texts that she had stolen away from Ach-To, with Rose telling Finn that she would often find Rey in their bunk poring over them at obscene hours in the morning, frantically scribbling notes down and muttering to herself. The final straw had come when she had stopped eating properly. Before Exegol, Rey had always made sure to eat her absolute full, a habit from her scavenger days when she didn’t know where her next meal would be coming from. But following the battle she seemed too engrossed in her study and meditation to even show up for meal times. That’s when Finn, Poe and Rose all decided that enough was enough and they cornered the Jedi as she climbed aboard the Falcon for another of her covert missions. 

Though Rey had not told them what was wrong and fiercely insisted that she was fine and just trying to fulfil a task left to her by her old Jedi Master, her friends knew that there was something else. Though, to this day, they still did not know what went on in that Sith throne room that had changed their friend so drastically, they had at least convinced her that she didn’t need to embark on this search alone. 

Which is how they found themselves here, Poe was poking around the temple hall, peering at the strange markings on the walls and the odd, bulbous flowers that grew on the vines that had worked their way through the cracks in the ancient stone. 

‘Does any of this make sense to you?” he asked, looking away from the strange flower to look at Finn. “Is it a force sensitive thing? A Jedi thing?” 

Finn sighed. “I think this is more of a ‘Rey’ thing. Although whatever it is, I find it hard to believe that Skywalker would send her in a wild goose chase across the galaxy without a very good reason. So we just have to have faith in her. Have faith that she knows what she’s doing.”

The problem was, Finn was finding that difficult to do. The more trips that they went on and returned empty handed the further Rey seemed to get from them, and the more erratic and distant she would become. The sooner they managed to find whatever it is Skywalker had tasked her to find, the better. The problem was… they had absolutely no idea what that was. 

“Well, whatever she’s doing” Poe said, knocking Finn out of his reverie, “I hope she manages it soon because I for one don’t want to be traipsing around the galaxy, knocking about in old creepy temples when I should be drinking a nice cocktail on a quiet beach somewhere, taking a well earned rest.” 

Finn scoffed at this. “What about rebuilding the galaxy and establishing a new republic?”

Poe chuckled and bumped his fist again Finn’s shoulder, a gesture of easy camaraderie. 

“Oh yeah, I’ll do that too But that will take what? One afternoon? Two tops!” 

Finn laughed, shaking his head. What he wouldn’t give to have Poe’s easy-going, optimistic nature in this moment. He knew he was tightly wound, what with being constantly worried about Rey but also with the increasing responsibilities being placed on him as a General of the Resistance and key player in the establishment of the New Republic. 

“If I’d have known that there’d be so many committee meetings and hearings when you offered me the role of general I’d have turned you down, you know that right? I follow orders I don’t give them, let alone orders that affect a whole galaxy. Way too much for me, i’ll go back to sanitation thank you!” 

Now Poe laughed, but quickly fell quiet as the echoes caused a suspicious amount of pattering footsteps to sound through the darkness of the chamber. Finn and Poe’s hands reflexively went to their blasters, drawing them in one swift motion as BB8 poked his electrode out, ready to zap anything that dared crawl past him with a surprisingly large amount of electricity. 

“Force I hope those are just Nudj” Finn muttered into the darkness, keeping his blaster ready as the scuttling footsteps vanished into the depths of the crumbling temple. He and Poe remained this way for a while, not wanting to speak again for fear of getting the attention of larger, less skittish creatures that could be lurking in the deptsh of the tunnels, until BB8 started making happy noises, drawing the pair's attention to the temple passageway where Rey had vanished. The soft light of her saber could be seen, lighting her ascent from the depths of darkness, her small figure emerging from the gloom, cradling a small, glowing object, no larger than a pomegranate. Her face, half in shadow half illuminated by her lightsaber, held a renewed vigour as she strode towards Finn, Poe and the droid, eyes sparkling. 

“I’ve found it…” she almost whispers, holding the object out for them to see. It was a small box, with intricate carvings on its surface in a language Finn recognised from the glimpses of the Jedi texts he had seen. The corners of the cube jutted out in sharp points, engraved with gold and it gave off an ethereal blue glow, illuminating the part of Rey’s face that had been shadowed by the harsh light of her saber. Finn could feel the energy emanating from it in cool, gentle waves, whispering to him to uncover the secrets within. A shiver went down his spine. 

“I mean, it’s pretty,” Poe said, a little miffed that all these mad hunts had been for something so small, “but what exactly is it?”

She smiled, for the first time in weeks. 

“This will help me get there.” she whispered, looking at Finn and Poe who tore their gazes from the object to look back at her, Finn raising a brow in confusion.

‘Get where exactly Rey? I thought all of this was to lead you here?!” 

Rey’s smile faltered a little bit and Finn could feel her force signature become overwhelmed with apprehension. She took a deep breath. “I suppose it is time you know…” she said quietly, and looked down at the object, before starting to walk towards the Falcon. 

“I’ll tell you when we get back. Rose deserves to hear it as well. It’s a long story…”


	2. Chapter 2

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> WARNING: We revisit both Rey and Ben's deaths in this chapter. Grab your tickets for the pain train boys...

The moment they touched down, Finn and Poe exchanged a wary glance, powering down the Falcon and taking a shared, deep breath. 

The journey home had been quiet, with Rey choosing to sit in the bedchamber of the ship for the majority of the journey, quietly examining the cube with BB8, while the boys flew them back to the Republic homeworld of Coruscant. Though the new government had been loath to take up the old Imperial seat of power, it was one of the only viable options for rebuilding, following the destruction of Hosnian Prime. The glittering city was equipped for a large government and all trace of the Empire had been removed, but nevertheless, the planet was a symbol of the failures of the first Republic and the downfall of the Jedi. Everyone just hoped they could get it right this time and wouldn’t make the mistakes of their forebears.

The first time they flew through Coruscant on their way to the imperial palce, following the decision to set up the government there, Finn and Poe were fascinated by the huge metropolitan planet, covered entirely in sparkling skyscrapers and speeders zooming through the skyways. Rey, however, did not share their enthusiasm. 

“There’s no green…” she had said, when they first made planetfall all those weeks ago. “I didn’t think I’d see a place with less green than Jakku.” 

Her attitude toward the Capital hadn’t improved much as of late. 

Finn frowned at the Jedi’s back as he followed her down the Falcon’s ramp, feeling the tension emanating from her in waves, her uncertainty and apprehension clouding her force signature. The glowing box was wrapped in a bolt of black cloth, that Rey must have found in the Falcon, and she was clutching it tightly, knuckles white. 

‘… Yeah, just come to my quarters pronto, Rey needs to talk…” 

Finn could hear Poe talking quietly to his comm-link, presumably to Rose who Rey had mentioned needed to hear whatever it was she had to say. Clearly it was big, and scary, as Finn could feel the conflict in his friend, tearing her up as they walked toward Poe’s rooms. 

As the Leader of the Resistance at the time of the final battle, Poe had been afforded a few more luxuries than most when they settled on Coruscant. He had his own private rooms as well as the office that he used to conduct his many, many meetings about the re-forming of the government. Finn often thought that Poe had agreed to help Rey on her mystery tour of the galaxy as an excuse not to have to sit through these hearings and committees. “Sorry, I’ve got to help the Last Jedi on her top secret, very important mission from Luke Skywalker” was a pretty decent excuse as far as excuses go, especially with both Rey and Luke’s defeat of the late emperor gaining them Legend status.

As they rounded the corner to Poe’s chambers, Finn saw Rose, leaning against the wall next to the door, waiting for them. When she saw them, her face lit up in a huge smile, but this soon slipped when she saw Rey’s pale, apprehensive face, Finn and Poe’s shares frowns, and the mysterious black cloth wrapped parcel. 

“Guys whats up?” she asked, walking up to them and giving BB8 an affectionate head pat. The droid was seemingly oblivious to the tension in the corridor and was simply happy to see Rose, beeping and whirring, attempting to tell her how he had been so brave against the mysterious footsteps in the cave (that he had never actually come into contact with but if he had he would have be SO READY for them, he assured her.) 

“Hey BB, why don’t you go find C-3PO and tell him all about it?” Poe suggested to the droid, who happily trundled down the hall, beeping excitedly, off to regale anyone he could find with the story of his heroics.

Poe spared him one fond glance before turning back to the matter at hand. 

“Well, now that we are all here I suppose we better go in so we can find out what this doo-dad does, huh?”

“You mean you actually found it?” Rose’s eyes widened as she followed the trio into Poe’s office, plopping herself down on one of the plush chairs. “So why aren’t you celebrating? isn’t this what you wanted?! Doesn’t this mean that you’ve fulfilled Luke’s wishes?” 

“Thats the issue.” Rey finally spoke. “I may not have been entirely truthful about the nature of this mission…”

She could feel three pairs of eyes whip round to stare at her. before any of them could voice the surprise she knew they must be feeling, she continued.

“I mean, it was Luke who set me on this path but…” she sighed, closing her eyes, bracing herself for what she knew had to follow. “I need to tell you what happened on Exegol. I need you to listen, and try to understand. Maybe then this will all start to make sense…”

++++  
Exegol, The Final Battle. 

She didn’t feel the life leave her body. Dying felt very much like a very heavy weight had just been lifted, and the rest of her simply decided the follow suit. She feels light, and cold and so so tired. 

The world around her is black, directionless and quiet. The echoes of the jedi that had come to her with such clarity were nowhere to be seen or heard, but Rey doesn’t mind. She started this journey alone, a lost child in the wastes of the Jakku desert, it was almost poetic that she should finish it alone. 

She has no idea how much time passes. It may have been hours she was suspended there, or it might have been seconds. She is numb, and her limbs are starting to feel heavy. Palpatine is gone and she’s sure her friends must be celebrating their victory by now. Will they know what happened to her? Will they find her body? Well they find Ben’s body, somewhere broken in that pit and know that, at the last moment, he had come to her? That he had given her the strength to do what was needed and done what’s right. Would he find peace too? 

As her thoughts drift to Ben she’s aware of a slight movement in the corner of her eye. She turns her head, and sees a small, blue glowing dot emerging from the void. The dot keeps coming for her, and as her eyes focus she sees it turn into a small butterfly, flying straight for her. She doesn’t question it. For some reason it makes perfect sense to her. She holds out her hands and the tiny creature hands in her palm, filling her hands with warmth. Her eyes close and she lets out a breath.   
‘Be with me..”

+++  
Her eyes snap open. She can feel the cold oppressive air of the sith temple fills her lungs. There is a hand in hers and someones warm breath on her face. Her eyes finally focus and she can see and she’s not sure if she’s actually alive because surely he can’t be here it can’t be…

“Ben.”

His name sounds like a prayer of salvation and he is looking at her like she is the world. He’s cradling her so gently, one hand on her waist, the other on the back of her neck. She is surrounded by him and she’s never felt safer. Her hand leaves his to gently, finally, touch his face and leans into her touch, tears pricking at the corners of his eyes. She smiles, and her heart is full of joy. She had thought of this, all those months ago, in a small hut on Ach-To. Reaching out to him, across the fire to touch his hair, his face, his hand… She knew in that moment that her fate was always entwined with his. But that past didn’t matter now. Nothing else matters, nothing has ever mattered more than this moment. A girl and a boy, no longer alone. Finally together and finally free. 

She has a moment of hesitation before she kisses him. Only a moment. The moment their lips touch it is as if the world is born again and she can feel in her soul that this is it. This is where she is meant to be. In the arms of Ben Solo, her equal, her soulmate. The Force sings around them and he pulls her close, his hand caressing the back of her neck and fingers tangling in her hair and her heart soars. She pulls away from the kiss, just to see him and look at him, assure herself that he is here and this is real. He gives her a warm, lopsided smile and her heart is full. She could spend every day looking at that smile. She would spend every day looking at that smile and his dimples. She would count the beauty spots that pepper his skin and kiss each and every one. She would find a million ways to show him he is loved, and safe and never has to be afraid again. Because finally, FINALLY, they have found each other. They are whole.

She feels his smile falter before it actually does. The fingers tangled in her hair loosen and she feels him become heavy, too heavy, he’s falling… 

She holds him as he falls to the ground, eyes frantically searching his face, pulling at their bond to find out what was wrong. 

‘Let me in!’ her mind is pushing against his but he can’t respond, can’t let her in. His eyes flutter closed and he breathes a long breath. The breath of a man who is finally able to sleep after being tormented for so long.   
But this isn’t right. It can’t be right. The universe couldn’t be so cruel. She is frantically pulling at the bond but it is getting thinner and thinner. He is fading, physically and she is clutching his shirt, begging the universe, to please please let him stay this isn’t right! 

She feels him vanish as the bond snaps entirely, the pain of it ripping through her whole body and she screams. She screams and sobs, clutching the shirt that is left behind, still warm from his body which has vanished into the Force. The echo of the bond is there but it is shattered, each point that should be linking up to him stabbing her like shard of glass in her heart. The tears leave trails in the dust and grime on her face and she sits there, sobbing, alone, with the ghost of his kiss on her lips that just keep crying his name. 

She stays there for some time, unable to move or focus on anything but the sheer agony of losing Ben so soon after getting him. She is grieving for the boy who was failed by so many, for the man who she only realised she loved too late and for herself, having tasted the joy of being whole for barely a minute before being reminded that anyone she loves must be taken from her. That she will never be complete again. 

The sounds of the battle above have turned to the sounds of star destroyers crashing down. She realises that she has to move, or face being crushed as they fall on the temple, burying the ashes of the Sith with the failure of the Final Order. For one mad moment she considers staying there. This is the last place she was happy. Her place is with him and he died here. Why should she move now that he is gone? 

‘No one is ever really gone.”

Luke’s voice sounds crystal clear in her head. It gives her the moment of clarity she needs. This ending feels wrong, so it must be. She would prove it. 

Clutching Ben’s shirt to her chest she stands. She turns on her heel and she runs through the crumbling fortress, towards her old master’s X Wing. She can’t save Ben if she is dead. So she will live. And she will find him. 

++++  
Rose, Finn and Poe are staring at Rey, completely dumbfounded. An awkward beat goes by where one of them tries to work out what they can say to Rey’s account of the final battle. 

It’s Poe that pipes up. It probably shouldn’t have been. 

“Well, I guess that solves the mystery of what happened to Kylo Ren after the battle. I can retire the committee that’s out searching for him. That’s one less meeting to be had. ” 

Rose looks at Poe as if she is about the whack him round the head with the heavy looking dossier thats on his desk.   
“Really?!” She challenged, eyes disbelieving. “That’s what you’re taking away from this? one less committee meeting?!” 

Finn decides to interject, before Rose actually does throw something at Poe.   
“Rey I’m confused. What does this have to do with the thingamabob you found in the temple? And why hy didn’t you just tell us this after the battle? We could have helped you!” 

“Would you have though?” Rey looks up at him him, eyes watering. Telling this story, reliving those moments had been almost unbearable for her and Finn could feel her agony clouding the Force around her, now that she was letting it be known to them. 

“Why wouldn’t we? You’re our frie- no you are family! We’d never have let you suffer alone, especially not after the life you’ve had!” Rose speaks up this time, leaning forward to try and lay a reassuring hand on Rey’s arm. 

“Oh, so you’re saying that if I’d have got out of that X wing and told you I’m mourning the loss of the man who was the Supreme Leader of the army that we literally just blew up because he’s the other half of my soul and he gave everything to bring me back and now I have to find a way to do the same for him, you’d have just been totally fine with it?!” 

Finn opened his mouth to respond but quickly shut it again. When she put it that way…

“Rey… I still don’t understand.” Rose piped up. “What do you mean by ‘bring him back’? If his body vanished…” she took a breath, looking her friend in they eye, “Rey if his body is gone he can’t come back. He’s dead. Gone.”

“But he can Rose!” Rey stood up, unwrapping the glowing box from the black cloth, which they could now see to be a sweater, and holding it out. “This is a Jedi Holocron. Made in the days of the Old Republic. It was made to record the Order’s findings about the World Between Worlds. It’s a place where all the paths of the Force converge, outside of Time and space. A padawan, Ezra Bridger, was able to get there. He saved Anakin Skywalker’s own Padawan from death using it, and if I can get there-“ 

“No.”

Poe stood, face dark, taking the holocron from Rey’s outstretched hand, earning him a cry of protest from her. 

“Kylo Ren was a monster. You cannot bring him back. I forbid it.” 

Rey stared at her friend in disbelief, before letting out an indignant snort. 

“Did you miss the part where I am only standing here because he died for me?! The part where he killed every one of the Knights of Ren to get to me to help me defeat Palpatine?! Or the part where you can’t forbid me to do things or give me orders like I’m a child! Give that back! Please!” 

Poe sighed, but did not give her back the holocron. “Actually Rey, as your superior officer I can give you orders. I know that you’re hurting but I have to think about what is best for the galaxy. I’m sorry that these missions have been for nothing but Kylo Ren, Ben Solo, whatever he was calling himself at the end of his life, simply has to stay dead. I can see about getting some sort of clearance for his name, taking his final sacrifice into account, so he can be on the memorial with his parents, but bringing him back, if that was even possible, is out of the question. I wont allow you to pursue this any further!” 

There was silence for a moment. The tension in the air was palpable. Finn and Rose looked nervously at each other, ready to restrain either Rey or Poe should the need arise, as Rey glared at Poe, who met her gaze with stony resilience. 

“I’ve got a bad feeling about this.” Finn thought to himself.


	3. Chapter 3

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Poe's need to escape all of his meetings has absolutely NOTHING to do with me being fed up of having a million Zoom calls for work a day I SWEAR.

“Give it back to me Poe, or I swear-“

“You’ll what Rey? draw your lightsaber and cut me down to take it? That doesn’t sound very Jedi of you!”

“Don’t put words in my mouth and don’t you talk about things you don’t understand! I need that! Give it to me!”

“Okay, Okay lets just calm down!” Finn shouted over the top of the squabbling pair, placing himself between them before Rey actually did ignite her weapon. “Things have clearly gotten out of control, lets just take a step back and look at this like calm rational adults!”

Poe went to object but Finn locked onto him with a steely glare that screamed ‘Don’t push it.’

Rose put a comforting hand on Rey’s arm, looking at her friend with a frown.

“Rey… I know this means a lot to you but-“

Rey turned to her, months worth of unshed tears pricking at the corners of her eyes.

“Rose this means _everything_ to me. I can’t live like this anymore… I’m being torn apart… half of me is missing and I can never find peace until I am whole again. Until Ben is back with me… Please, understand that he isn’t the monster we all believed him to be… he was lied to and manipulated from the very start. There was light in him all along…” The tears were spilling down her cheeks now, and Roses heart ached for her. Rey always seemed so strong, but right now she just looked young, tired and in pain. 

“But… you can’t bring the dead back to life Rey. Its not possible.Rey I’m sorry but he’s gone.”

“I thought that too. But when I felt him die, I didn’t feel him become one with the Force, like I did for Luke and Leia.” Rey grasped Roses hand in hers, “It was different. I thought maybe it was just the pain of the bond breaking that stopped me from feeling him in the Force but when I went to Tatooine, it was confirmed.” She turned to Finn and Poe, her eyes pleading with them to understand. “I saw them Poe. I saw Luke and Leia. They were… happy. And finally at peace. But Ben wasn’t with them. I know, I just _know_ that if he was there, he’d have come to say goodbye. He couldn’t say goodbye to me on Exegol but he could have on Tatooine. He would have… So I began searching, in the sacred texts. And I found notes about the World between Worlds, a place outside of time and space and I just knew. That’s where he is. That’s where I’ll find him.” The tears she had been holding in were falling freely now but she didn’t care t wipe them away. Let them see her cry and see the pain she had hidden from them since the end of the war. For so long, Ben Solo had been a secret, wrapped up tightly in her heart. Sharing their story now was like finally letting the iron grip loosen a little. She had to make them see…

“Poe has a point though Rey.” Fine said quietly. “Kylo Ren was a monster.He led the First Order. He tortured you and Poe, killed Han… Rey I saw him order the massacre of Tuanul on Jakku. He killed so many-“

“And so did we!” Rey shot back. “How many of your stormtrooper brothers and sisters did we blow up when we destroyed the Sith fleet? How many of those were like you Finn?! We’ll never know how many of them would have turned because we didn’t give them a chance. We blew them up. War is so much more than who is right and who is wrong! Don’t you see? We had no problem killing First Order troops because we believed in our cause. Because we knew we were right. Ben was the same! He was manipulated by Snoke and convinced that this was his only path. He was told that he _had_ to kill his father to end his torment and finally be free and he was _lied to._ He thought he had no choice but to commit those atrocities because that was what was _right._ We are no different to him. We just get to claim the high ground because we won.”

Rose’s face was very pale, and Finn grimaced. He had to admit, Rey wasn’twrong.

Poe held the Jedi’s gaze for few heartbeats, then sighed.

“Rey this would be a political nightmare. How would we explain it to the Senate?”

Rey met his gaze, steely determination oozing from her, despite the tears.

“Leia may have started the Resistance to stop the First Order but you know, Poe you _know,_ that her primary objective was to bring him home. To free him from Snoke and give him the chance he was denied. Are you telling me that if she was here, you’d be able to look her in the eyes and say you had the chance to bring her Son back and you didn’t because _the Senate might not approve?”_

Silence.

No-one dared move and no-one could offer a counter argument. The general had been dear to all of them, but especially Poe. Rose and Finn’s eyes moved to him, waiting to see his response, holding their breath.

Poe frowned, groaned and then held out the Holocron.

“FINE!” He conceded, allowing Finn and Rose to let out that held breath. “I can’t so no to Leia, you know that. So, we will try. We’ll have a go at getting him back BUT-“ He held up a finger, locking eyes with Rey who was clutching the holocron, “We keep this a strictly need to no basis. Namely, the Senate do NOT need to know. Not now. I can’t be dealing with all those hearings.”

Rose gave Poe a disbelieving look, wondering if this man actually did any workor if he let C3PO ghost govern for him. The thought of either being in charge of a galaxy was frankly terrifying.

Rey was smiling through her tears and Poe rolled his eyes, pulling the girl into a tight embrace, erasing the tension that had arisen between them. Though the pair did not always see eye to eye, the bond that had formed between them during their time on Ajan Kloss, combined with their shared love of BB8 and Finn made them fast and fierce friends. 

“Come on guys, group hug!”

Poe pulled Finn and Rose into the embrace, so they surrounded Rey who was crying in earnest now.

“Thank you… Thank you…” she was whispering, clutching and Poe’s shirt and bring her face in the assorted arms of her family. Revisiting the events of Exegol had knocked the wind out of her and the thought of having to undertake this quest alone, without the support of the people she loved and potentially having to choose between them and Ben… She could feel her strength being depleted and she knew that after this she would need a hot bath and long nap. But for now she would savour this beautiful, quiet moment and nurse that spark of hope, that had bloomed into a flame in her heart. They were going to bring Ben Solo home.

++++

_“If you are receiving this message, please be warned. The World Between Worlds is a gateway to many paths through Time and Space which are forced we must not tamper with. If you came here seeking to change the past, know that I cannot help you. You must accept what has happened, use it to reflect and avoid those mistakes in the future. If one could simply erase their mistakes from existence, we would never be able to grow and our actions would be meaningless no matter how great or small._

_Having heeded this, please use the following information for academic study, and marvel at the limitlessness of the Force. Be humbled by the infinite possibilities offered and be mindful of your place in this Universe._

_The World between Worlds has many names. Vergence Scatter, Netherworld of Unbeing, Chain Worlds Theorem, however you wish to address it, is a mystical plane within_ _the Force_ _serving as a collection of doors and pathways that exist between_ _time_ _and_ _space_ _, linking all moments in time together. Most learn of this plan through encounters with_ _Loth-wolves_ _, who are intrinsically tied to the realm and can traverse through it in a manner similar to_ _hyperspace_ _travel. No-one living knows exactly how it came to be, or what one will find when they get there. Some say it is a dark hallways, with infinite doorways. Some have had visions of white paths weaving between moments of Space and Time, while others see a great ocean, with every moment in time reduced to a single drop. Thus, one must understand that their existence, though it may seem small, makes up the great fabric of the Force. We must remember our humility while not downplaying the great effect our actions can have on the world around us. The plane of existence in which we exist when entering the World Between Worlds depends entirely on what what we bring to it. Enter with your heart full of darkness and hate, and that is what will greet you. With this in mind, one should enter a deep, meditative star before attempting entry. Clear your mind of darkness, resentment, fear, anger. Focus on the light within you, and be sure to anchor yourself to your plane of existence. The lure of control over all space and time can be tempting. Be sure to remember who you are and your place in the Universe._

_To enter the realm, one must take themselves to the ancient_ _painting_ _of the_ _Mortis_ _god In the temple on the_ _planet_ _Lothal_ _, in the Outer Rim. There, you and your anchor must enter a deep meditative state, opening your mind to the greater universe. Only then will the door present itself._

_Travel Safe.”_

The soothing voice went quiet and the glow of the holocron dimmed considerably.

‘Well,” Poe sighed, “Looks like we’re going to the Outer Rim folks. Thats a good few days journey, I’ll get 3PO to push all my meetings back!” He looked almost too pleased with this fact and Rose couldn’t help but roll her eyes.

“Lothal…” Rey said quietly, clutching the black sweater that she’d used to wrap the holocron in, the sweater that was all she had of her soulmate, close to her chest.

“I’m coming Ben… Just a little while longer…” she sent down the fracturedremnants of their bond, praying that somewhere, he would hear her and know that he wasn’t alone. And she was coming to bring him home.

**Author's Note:**

> Nudj are a type of green-skinned lizard found in the swamps of the planet Dagobah. We aren't on Dagobah, but I wanted Poe to allude to something slithery but relatively harmless.


End file.
